In 2017, Amateurinvestor portfolio soundly beat the S & P 10, 5 3 and 1 year returns, as shown in the table below.

Fund/index	Expense ratio (%)	10y (%)	5y (%)	3y (%)	1 (%)
Amateur Investor		17.9	21.4	21.5	35.6
S & P Index		6.9	13.2	9.65	20.16

 

Holdings of each stock at 2017 year end are as follows:

ADBE: 7.7%

CNI: 5.1%

MSFT: 46.1%

SBUX: 12.6%

V: 27%

Performance of my stocks for 10, 5 3 and 1 year in the market, end of 2017, shown in the table below.

Note Starbucks (SBUX) has slowed its growth as it failed to meet earnings targets predicted by management, although earnings were still adequate for the present, just not fulfilling the past sunny promises. This is a common growth stock story and this is why we pay more attention to past achievement rather than rosy predictions.  It is also why we buy cautiously at high valuations.

Microsoft (MSFT) was range bound from late 2000 until late 2013. In that decade MSFT proceeded to dominate one historical stage of its market, consumer and business server software, with revenue increasing from $23B in 2000  to 77.8B in 2013. However under the non-engineer  Ballmer, MSFT did not reliably expand its dominance to newly emerging markets such as mobile and search.  In late 2013 under new CEO engineer Nadella, MSFT has accelerated its growth into the public/hybrid cloud on which business will depend in the future, returned to its historical focus of making its software available as a standard on all platforms.  The stock has accelerated, with the realization that even with the investment required to establish public cloud infrastructure, margins will remain high, and that the historical dominance in business server software will translate into a preferred competitive position in the hybrid/public cloud  for the business market.

VISA (V) has been a pioneer company with the  steadily strengthening competitive advantage of its global Visanet for multiple decades. It came out of the gate running as a public company March 2008, and has steadily grown into an expanding addressable market, while actively establishing standards which enable the  digital payments market.

Canadian National Railroad (CNI) stock price and to some extent revenue was affected by the fall in oil prices in 2015, but this did not materially affect the strength of its business.  meanwhile, its ports are expanding container volume capacity.

Adobe Inc. (ADBE) has continued to dominate the graphic arts digital content business and become a dominant force in digital marketing of this content.  Its partnership with MSFT gives it a stronger global reach.

It is satisfying to find that an Amateur can achieve these definitely satisfactory returns. Young or old new investors can do likewise, provided they do the adequate reading and think critically. Investment can be fascinating in what it teaches you about human nature in history and today, and what you need to learn about  prospective companies or those you buy.  The investor’s assets work and grow for him or her.